


Third Time's the Charm

by Xobit



Series: Mermech'verse [3]
Category: Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mermaid, Mermech, cross species
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-17
Updated: 2012-06-17
Packaged: 2017-11-07 23:29:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/436627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xobit/pseuds/Xobit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Optimus fulfils part of his destiny as Prince of Iaoceania</p>
            </blockquote>





	Third Time's the Charm

It was so unlike his sire… and yet so very like him!

Optimus swam as fast as he could, he wasn’t wearing any extra armor or weapons and had always been a fast swimmer, so he did not fear getting caught by the guards that had been sent after him.

Why though? Why this stubborn refusal of lasting peace… Ultra Magnus had never told him why he hated Koralite and its ruler so much that he refused to see reason. Iaoceania stood no chance against Koralite if all out war was declared…

Thousands would die needlessly, most wouldn’t even be warriors.

Unrest had plagued the boarders of the two underwater realms through all of his own sparklinghood, his younglinghood, and it had shaped him from his hatching.

He had been so very proud when his sire had finally allowed him onto the battlefield, so full of terror when he realized that true battle had little to do with what he had been taught.

It was not safely ritualized, there was no polite moving back if one lost his grip on his weapon. There was no hesitation, no mercy…

Only energon painted water, the scent of fear and death.

And then there had been…

_He had been swimming about in a daze, not even aware that he had lost his blade at one point. That he had lost spear and shield too. Even his axe was lost somewhere among the dead on the sandy seabed._

_His olfactory sensors where clotted with the sickly scent of energon and in places the half processed fuel hang like poisonous, slowly dissolving clouds in the water. He saw no one moving, didn’t know where his own kin were, those still alive, or the shark kin… didn’t know up from down or north from west._

_Swimming, that was all he had had the sense to do… away from the death plagued battlefield. Away from the slaughter of the ‘minor’ skirmish…_

_Primus will it! If that was minor he wished to never see a true battle, an epic one such as those the old meremechs sang about on late dark cycles when high grade were shared._

_To think that he had once longed for a place among them, for stories of his own._

_Truth be told he just wanted to b~_

_“What have we here?” the rough voice was accompanied with a rough grip around the very base of his tail, just barely above the start of the delicate webbing of his tail fin. He twisted around and gasped, dazed optics going wide and brightening abruptly as fear surged inside him._

_All the sharkmechs had seemed huge… fierce and terrible, death dealers hatched. This one though, he was larger, more terrible and fiercer looking than any other. Dark, with splashes of red that seemed like angry snarls to his fearful processor, and black like bottomless holes that seemed to reflect no light at all._

_Handsome as only death could be…_

_He was yanked forward, closer to his enemy, and all he could do was hold out a hand to try and prevent it. The other smirked knowingly, free hand coming towards him, to kill… then it stopped. Smirk turned to frown, red optics narrowed dangerously._

_“You bare the royal seal, pretty one,” it was not a question, and Optimus found himself unable to prevent the chain being yanked off his neck with a brutal pull. The delicate thing could not withstand such treatment._

_“No!” He tried to grasp it, twisting despite the other’s grip… almost… almost!_

_His back met the unforgiving sand harshly enough to make him scream with pain, the visage above him enough to make his spark nearly gutter out. The snarling sharkmech looked more terrifying than ever, staring down at him, jagged dentals bared._

_There was no playfulness to find in the red optics, no forgiveness, no mercy._

_And yet._

Shaking the memories off as best he could, Optimus continued, he would cross the nearest boarder.

End this foolishness!

Ultra Magnus might be his king and his sire, but he was also a fool! He was not serving his kingdom by refusing this offer of lasting peace.

First hatched or not, he had six siblings… any one of which could become heir, since he had not yet been chosen for it. He would serve the people of Iaoceania far better by becoming consort to the shark lord than he ever could by becoming their king!

And if the lord Megatron wanted his spark? He was only too glad to give it… his people deserved his loyalty, his sacrifice.

Not that he was sure it would be a sacrifice…

_Optimus looked at their opponents, spark quailing in his chest. There were so many! Many more than last time… and he wasn’t even sure how he had managed to escape the terrifying last encounter he had had then._

_He hardly understood what had happened, that the stranger would do such… such things._

_How could any of them escape alive if the sharkmechs gathered truly attacked? It looked like the entire army of the shark lord’s realm!_

_“King Ultra Magnus,” the voice was raspy, cool and had the air of arrogance held by some nobles. The shark mech speaking was crimson and pinkish purple, lean and dangerous. Optimus had tried hard to ignore his approach, his chassis still remembering being at another, larger, sharkmech’s mercy._

_“I am Starscream, I speak for Megatron, my lord, the king of sharks, lord of Koralite!” the proclamation was fiercely proud, and he shivered to hear it._

_“And what does **lord** Megatron want?” He had never heard his sire sound so… impolite._

_“Lord Megatron extends a treaty of peace for ten vorn. He will not touch your boarders, and you will not touch his…” Starscream extended a scroll and Optimus felt his vents stall. The delicate rolled up OLED pad was held closed by his stolen chain…_

_The royal seal was not attached though. He hoped, and prayed to Primus, that his sire would not recognize the chain._

_That message seemed to be for him only._

_Optimus looked past the arrogant sharkmech to the army of his kin, while his sire took the treaty, reluctantly._

Optimus made a small sound of distress. Even then he had known that refusing peace would have been begging destruction. It was inexplicable to him why his sire had hesitated then, and it still was now…

But Ultra Magnus had said yes, grudgingly and rudely, but still yes.

There had been peace, if a guarded one, for vorns. Iaoceania had thrived on it, its people happy. They didn’t know that the peace forged had not been a lasting one… a forever one. All they knew was that they were not losing younglings anymore.

And now his sire was willing to rip apart that security? Just to deny the warlord a mate?

Optimus knew he would have gone happily, had the request been for him to simply breed for the shark lord. He honestly would have let the sharkmech have him in any capacity as long as it would have ensured a truly lasting peace!

Crossing the border, he allowed himself to slow down a little, exhaustion catching up to him. His sire’s soldiers would not cross into Koralite without due cause… his crossing into it voluntarily would not count as that.

He had a promise to keep, one to his people.

Shark lord Megatron had a promise to keep too…

_“Such a handsome little primeling… but too young by far, yet,” Optimus stared back, confused and shocked. The growl was still there, the optics still cool, betraying little of what the sharkmech was thinking. But the tone… the words had changed._

_“G-give me the seal!” he tried to sound demanding, twisting in the unforgiving but not crushing hold. His small digits scribbling for a hold on the dark sharkmech’s plating, trying to get to his necklace and the seal._

_“I will, primeling, I will,” the smirk was terrifying and so was the fact that the seal was slipped into a subspace pocket so the sharkmech could use both hands to hold him, “but not yet…” he tried to fight, hands stemming against the dark pewter armor. But his dermas were still claimed, the kiss oddly gentle if not very innocent._

_He had kissed few… and none like this. The larger sharkmech easily gained access to his mouth, glossa so large and foreign to feel and taste that he didn’t even think to bite. And then it ended and he was just staring uncomprehendingly at his captor._

_“You have some aging to do before I will give it to you. Lovely as you are, you have only barely matured…” The hands left him, the sharkmech leaving too… leaving him to stare helplessly after him, confused and scared._

_Not at all understanding why, nor how, he had survived the encounter._

“You still haven’t learned to be aware of your surroundings, primeling,” Optimus twisted, but too late. For a moment the first memory flashed again, he scented energon, death and battle, then it was gone and he looked into ruby optics.

“And you, my lord, still have too much of a hands on approach!” it had not taken him that long to realize who had caught him then, too long yes but he had been young and relatively innocent.

“I much prefer to be hands on with the one I have claimed,” the smirk was no longer terrifying, and this time he recognized the promise. He did not refuse the kiss, did not even try a token push, hands simply resting against the dark pewter armor. But he did not truly attempt to kiss back either, there were things yet to be done.

“I am not yours, my lord, you asked for my spark… I will offer it, but you still have to win me,” Optimus warned, optics serious if a little bit bright with excitement. He wanted peace for his people, he would let himself be won… but he hoped for something more too.

He wanted that which the shark lord’s first kiss had promised him!

Passion, ecstasy…

Maybe even partnership, and love?

He dared hope that there was more at play than simple want for conquering and possession. A fragile hope, a youngling's fantasy he knew, but still something he had nursed in his spark with the greatest of care.

Optimus had no idea how the shark lord would react to such a demand, even as politely as he had delivered it, but the hearty deep rumbling laughter was not it. The sound was encouraging though, and so… alive? So… beautiful and engaging.

“I think I can convince you to let me have my claim, primeling,” the growl was more like a purr this time, as if the shark lord was satisfied. He did look satisfied… like he was enjoying the challenge. “Your vorn has improved you past any hopes of mine. I am truly glad I did not follow my first impulse of simply stealing you away!”

“Take me to your castle then, my lord… win me?” finally he was let go, and he stretched, twisting his tail about a little. He did notice the lingering sweep of his lean frame from the red optics, the spike in brightness.

Desire…

It might be only physical, but it still warmed him in more than a physical way. If it was all he could have he would take it though, it was more than he might have had with many others that would have, or had, asked for his hand.

And Megatron, lord of Koralite, had asked for far more than merely his hand and his eggs.

He would probably not be so hard to win after all.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Optimus wasn’t too sure about Koralite and its main city Kaon. Nor about the castle of Kaon where he was currently living. And had been living for a whole of ten orn. It was dark and spiky, beautiful but subdued when you, like he, was used to the light and cheerful colors of Iaoceania.

He had met prime Springer, and re-met commander Starscream. He still got the shivers when interacting with the latter, but the Prime was a nice mech. Someone who seemed almost as desperate for lasting peace and open trade between their two realms as Optimus himself.

Someone who knew a little too much of Rodimus…

But he could hardly blame his younger brother. No matter how they had made it work, he was glad for him and hoped that in time they could become more than the situation allowed for now. He understood the attraction, for he felt it too… though for the king, not the prime.

It appeared that Megatron had taken him on his word, for he was wooed as intensely as if the shark lord had competitors for his hand. As chastely as any proper supervised and chaperoned courting should be…

Truth be told it was driving him a little crazy. To the point where he dearly wished he had chosen different words for his challenge.

Much as being spoiled rotten with treats and generous beautiful gifts was nice, he wanted this to move past such things. He had wanted to be won! Conquered…

Taken…

But how could he say that now? Megatron was doing his best to be the perfect gentle me~

“I hardly see what you want with him…” the voice was a shrill purr of utter seduction, and Optimus stopped swimming, unsure and confused. He had been asked to come here… the servant had implied rather heavily that it was Megatron’s wish.

That had been odd, but…

“He is a delicate little thing, easily broken… nothing fierce about him. So why?” that was… that was Starscream? Uncertainly he swam to the doorway, hiding but trying to look into the room at the same time.

It was Starscream, the sharkmech was practically resting atop someone reclining on one of those odd seats the sharkmechs favored. He couldn’t quite see who occupied the seat though. But it wasn’t that far a leap, was it?

“You could have me, I have warmed your berth enough these past vorns… are you telling me you were simply waiting for him? I can hardly believe that, my lord,” he inched a little further and finally saw what he had guessed… more than he had wanted to see. The passionate kiss was, oh… how would he ever compete with such a thing!

He pulled away, not caring that he hit the door, pushing it from ajar to open. He was small enough to easily use a window as exit and that was what he did. Someone yelled but he didn’t listen, distraught and confused.

Why had Megatron asked for his spark if Starscream was his true love?

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

“Fool!” the harsh word was just a whisper before he pushed the other sharkmech away with annoyance. That changed though, dermas twisted in a snarl as Megatron caught sight of his fleeing prime.

In that instance he knew why Starscream had called him here, and knew how much of a mistake taking the other sharkmech into his berth had been. He had never hidden that it was nothing more than interfacing, that it would never be more than that. But of course Starscream had not listened.

“You are more of a fool than I thought, Starscream, you will regret this!” the brightly colored shark snarled at him, the sound shrill and furious.

“Like you regretted your deal with the witch?” the sneer was controlled but the words showed how lacking in control Starscream was. Twisting around, he hit the smaller sharkmech hard enough to send him into a wall.

“Do not think I will forgive you if you mess this up, Starscream! The only reason you are not dead right now is that I once respected you… once, Starscream!” he left, determined to hunt down the one he had been waiting for since before he was hatched.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Optimus didn’t know where he was. Kaon did not lie anywhere near Koralite's boarders and he had been… Well, he had paid little attention to their journey to Kaon, as he was now paying little attention to where he was going.

Why? Why would Megatron ask for his spark when he had a lover… someone he loved! Why not bond the other sharkmech? Why make this farce happen!

He was both angry and sad, furious and despairing…

Optimus was doing this for his people, but he was selfish enough to also want a little something for himself. If it was only desire, so be it! But he had just seen the mech he had found he desired kissing someone else passionately.

The mech who had asked for his very spark didn’t even desire him?

Why then?

Why!

“Because what you saw was a lie,” whirling around he found himself almost face to face with the shark lord. His instinct was to escape, and he did try but once again he found his tail caught in an unrelenting grip. He couldn’t believe he’d been talking out loud!

This time he did fight, attempting to twist free, even clawing, uselessly, at the sharkmech’s armor… actually screaming curses at him until he was silenced…

By a kiss.

It wasn’t a chaste one either, Megatron took full advantage of his open mouth, shoving his own glossa inside to claim and mark.

Optimus’ struggling stilled slowly as the kiss made him forget why he was fighting. It was briefly renewed when he felt cool sand give against his back, but when Megatron’s bulk pressed him down it was hard to stay focused on anything but the kiss and the hot chassis of the sharkmech.

This was what he had been secretly dreaming about for orn, if not, in some way, for vorn… Someone who wouldn’t let him win just because he was ‘the oldest prime’, someone who wanted him, for him.

He didn’t know if that one was Megatron, but he had allowed himself to hope, to dream of this mech with that image in processor. And now something very like his secret dreams was happening. He just didn’t know if he still wanted it to happen.

It just seemed like he couldn’t stop it, or had the will to stop it.

Because he _did_ want it! So fragging much he had no words for it… and no strength to fight with when the sharkmech’s back hands went from keeping him still to caressing him. Instead he responded, arching into the heavier frame. Moaning into the brutal kisses…

Giving in, giving himself up.

He did not notice the small cuts on his own glossa from the sharkmech’s sharp dental rows. He didn’t care that his hidden interface panels slid aside as soon as searching digits pressed into his slit.

Optimus thrashed and screamed when a big finger was pressed right though his valve seal, but didn’t begin fighting again. For the first time since he was caught again, Megatron stopped kissing him, and he finally tasted his own energon. It mattered little to him, he was too caught up in the uncomfortable pleasure ‘forced’ upon his chassis.

“It is you I want, it has always been you!” the words were harsh, nearly garbled beyond recognition. He didn’t answer them with anything but a cry as another digit was slid into him.

“Starscream is a fool! Nothing more, he bore me a mechling because I needed it and he was willing under the conditions I set at the time. But you have always been the one,” another kiss, a growl so feral it nearly made him scared despite all the other jumbled up feelings he had.

A third finger, and the burning pleasure/pain stretch he found himself craving desperately whenever the fingers were pulled out, and greeted with a moan when they were thrust back in.

The last one seemed as impossible as the whole situation. Four fingers…

Then suddenly they were removed entirely and he protested with a whine which earned him a rough sound that might have been a chuckle or a moan before he was pulled up from the sand. He wasn’t allowed to miss the heat of the sharkmech though, nor to realize what was about to happen…

He barely had time to register the hot, hard length against him before it entered him. It stretched him far wider than four fingers, burned with true pain and made him scream.

“Shhh…” Megatron mercifully stilled, letting him adjust to the size of his spike. It was difficult, his chassis felt tense, like it needed something and his valve was sore and kept… spasming. That ironically, strangely?, felt good. It made him want to move and he shifted, mewling at the jolt of pleasure it created.

The sharkmech took over then, starting to thrust slowly.

Movement changed the entire equation, pain ebbing and pleasure rising. But pleasure didn't stop at the level the where the pain had been, it kept rising, making him feel like he would explode from the pressure.

It was enough to make him squirm again, rubbing his chassis against the much larger shark mech. Sounds of pleasure and whimpers of something very like frustration leaving his vocalizer.

His spike was caught between them, and was stimulated mercilessly by both their movements, making it all even more unbearable...

Even more pleasurable.

At some point it was too much, he didn't know when, why or how but it ended.

He broke.

It was not an explosion, more like an implosion... closing around his spark making it pulse and flicker with the most exquisite almost pain feeling, and then... then darkness.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Mmm..." the sheets under him were soft and he felt good. Oddly sore, but good...

"You are awake, primling?" it was more a fact than a question, but it still asked for confirmation. Optimus stretched and had to whimper when soreness gave way to a spike of true pain.

"Yes, I am... I..." his optics flickered online to lock on the sharkmech... Megatron, his... lover? Honestly he wasn't sure what had happened, it was all jumbled up and confusing.

"You kissed Starscream?" He didn't have the energy to sound accusing, it came out more miffed than anything.

"Starscream kissed me, and I wasn't very receptive, though I am aware you didn't wait around to see that part. I have been waiting for you for a long time, Optimus, Prime of Iaoceania..." he had said the same when he had caught him... what did that mean?

"Why? Why wait for me... what could that possibly mean! You didn't even meet me until that orn so long ago on a random battle field,"

"Do you know who your Carrier was?" The question took him by surprise, and if it hadn't been for Megatron's very serious expression he would have become angry. Instead he just shook his head, for he truly did not know... all he knew was that he had been Carried until just before hatching. His siblings had all been hatched in the palace, eggs given to their sire ensure the royal line. Not one of them had the same Carrier as he, or each other.

"She was a most beautiful femme... and your sire loved her deeply. Unfortunately she was destined to become something he could not bear to set his optics on. Since she knew this, she gave him one egg and stayed only as long as she dared before coming here. I was much younger then, and I did not think, like she did not think, of the consequence of the promise she had me make..." Megatron paused, the sharkmech looking away and giving Optimus a chance to look at him. There was something infinitely sad about the strong face plates at this moment.

"I vowed to never let him near her new home... He wanted he so much he was willing to start a war. In return she promised me someone to love, she said... She said that I would know because when I first saw him he would be terribly young, and wear the seal of Iaoceania around his neck joint," their optics met and locked, Optimus felt his spark pulse with both pain and joy.

"How could..." he stopped, confused at the idea what his own Carrier would promise him to the shark lord. And how could she have possibly know that he would meet Megatron like he had that first time?

"Your Carrier is Black Arachnia, Optimus... The sea witch. Long ago her name was once Elita One of Yussana. She was the most beautiful femme to ever swim the Oceans; and she was the one the curse of her line awoke within when the old sea witch died," the sadness and pain on the grey faceplate was almost wrong. There had been love there, between young Megatron and Elita One. Not romantic, but certainly love... why else would she have come to him? "Though she did not think that her seeking protection from me would lead to war, she must have already known... you are the key to peace, and the key to happiness for me. But I will not force you, it was never my meaning to force you!"

"I..." he could hardly deal with the idea of being the Creation of the sea witch... she was the sworn enemy of Iaconia. said to be a bigger threat than Koralite! Everyone hated her... everyone had loved his Carrier, how was it possible? "Why didn't you tell me this before? Why..."

"I wanted to not tell you at all. But I think I was wrong, I think a lot of things are wrong that should be set right," for a moment the red optics dimmed and then they seemed to burn with resolution. "I think it is time that your sire and Carrier meet again... in all the time she has lived in this realm she has not done one bad thing with her magic. The price of her magic is steep, but she has never fallen into the cruelty that her predecessor wallowed in. She should be by your sire's side, not alone..." and along with resolution and determination there was a frail thing... something Optimus almost couldn't believe he was seeing.

"Just like you won't be alone!" He took one of the large hands in his own and was rewarded by seeing the fail hope bloom.

It was so easy...

He didn't want to be alone either.

**Author's Note:**

> Collaboration with DeviantArt artist Murr-Miay. She made this piece for it [Prince Optimus and Sharkmech's Lord](http://murr-miay.deviantart.com/art/Prince-Optimus-and-Sharkmech-s-Lord-285062918)
> 
> Beta  
> AKzeal


End file.
